Franz Petrak

Franz Petrak (9 October 1886, Mährisch-Weißkirchen – 9 October 1973, Vienna) was an Austrian-Czech mycologist.

From 1906 to 1910, he studied botany at the University of Vienna, where he was a student of Richard Wettstein. In 1913 he obtained his doctorate of sciences, and until 1916, worked as a high school teacher in Vienna. During World War I, he was stationed in Galicia and Albania, where he collected specimens in his spare time.^[1] From 1918 to 1938, he worked as a private scientist in his home town, and from 1938 to 1951, was associated with the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna.^[2]

He was the author of nearly 500 published works, primarily in the field of mycology.^[3] Much of his mycological work was published in the journal Annales mycologici and its successor Sydowia. Reportedly, his private herbarium contained 100,000 specimens.^[2]

As a taxonomist, he described numerous species within the genus Cirsium (family Asteraceae).^[4] The mycological genera Petrakiella, Petrakiopeltis and Petrakina are named in his honor, the latter genus being circumscribed by Raffaele Ciferri in 1932.^[2]

Franz Petrak died 9 October 1973 in Vienna.^[5]

Selected works

• Die nordamerikanischen Arten der Gattung Cirsium, 1917.
• Die Gattungen der Pyrenomyzeten, Sphaeropsideen und Melanconiee, 1926.
• Die phaeosporen Shaeropsideen und die Gattung Macrophoma, 1926.
• "Index of fungi. Petrak's lists, 1920-1939". Cumulative index by the Commonwealth Mycological Institute (Great Britain), 1956.
• "Index of fungi : list of new species and varieties of fungi, new combinations and new names published 1920-1939", 1957.
• "Index of fungi: a supplement to Petrak's lists, 1920-1939". By the Commonwealth Mycological Institute (Great Britain), 1969.^[6]

See also

• List of mycologists

References